31 October 2007

Happy Halloween!

Logan, dressed as a Storm Drooper (his pronunciation), and I paid a long overdue visit to Jeff and Lori Fiorovich at Crystal Bay Farm today. The whole drive from Highway One was cloaked with thick fog, which only added to the spooky-ooky vibe. Pictured above is our greeting committee: I think it's just brilliant. Crystal Bay Farm gets my vote for the Best Pumpkin Patch I Have Ever Seen.

The farmstand and pumpkin patch were abandoned: the fog was cold, and Logan, shivering. We walked through the fog, past the sunflower "maze", past chickens grazing in empty strawberry fields (I bumped up the contrast here, but they really were enshrouded in fog, just fifteen feet away), past the horse and goats, to Jeff and Lori's house, where my "hallooooo" produced one barking dog, and then two. And then two humans, and a sleek black kitty.

Oh, it was just great to see them again. It's been too long, and I just wanted to catch them on what amounts to their Christmas every year. They barely leave the land for the whole month of October, and by Halloween, they are exhausted, probably thinking that a career in the military would be easy after what they endure every autumn.

I wish I could describe every single thing I saw—like these beautiful Musquée de Provence, also called "Fairytale" pumpkins. Their coppery color deepens through the autumn, and they keep well. I will likely be cooking the one Jeff and Lori sent me home with. It's a beauty.

I think you can tell that they live with the kind of artistry around them that makes people pine for a rural life, pine for a simple place that gives children and other people a chance to regard the world with new eyes, and feel like we get an itch scratched just by spending time in their world.

Thanks, Jeff and Lori. We love you.

XOX, Nana and Logan

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: "We used to go around tipping outhouses over, or turning over corn shocks on Halloween. Anything to be mean." —Loretta Lynn

Comments

What a wondderful day you had, friends, laughter, lots of beautiful Autumn finery, and a scary dog to boot. Thanks for a beautiful tour, I love the "Fairytale" pumpkins too. The growing season is going out with a flouish isn't it?